Tentpegs

Greg England — one of my best blogging friends and a blogger you need to add to your daily reading list — made a comment on the first part of this two part series that really addresses it well. Go back and read that when you can. The lady who wrote that question went on to say this:

I also have another situation, I’m not sure I have a question but I will just let you know of the situation. Last week at the aforementioned Praise service there was a woman who told a story of one of her friends who was driving on the highway and she saw someone on the side of the road and she heard God say “Pick him up”. The woman was like, um, I don’t think so. So she kept on driving and as she passed him she heard God say “I told you to pick him up”. So she turned around and picked the guy up. While they were driving she got into a conversation with the guy about spiritual things and the man kept telling her that God sent him to tell people that He was getting ready to come back. The woman didn’t realize that she was speeding until a cop pulled up behind her, she looked down and saw that she was speeding. The cop came up and she started apologizing telling the cop that she just wasn’t paying attention because she was talking to the man that was with her and she looked over and the man was gone. She was like “Officer, I promise there was a man in here with me” and he said “ma’am don’t even worry about it. you are the 16th person I have pulled over in the last couple of weeks with that exact same story. Now, being the CoC raised girl that I am, I have a hard time believing this. Do you think things like this are possible? Should I open my mind to things like this. I do believe that there are things that happen that are beyond explanation, but are there also instances when things like this just aren’t true?

If you are asking if I think that particular incident occurred, the answer would be “no.” It reeks of “urban legend” to me. Does that mean that I am saying that particular lady lied? Sadly, yes. People lie all the time in order to make God look more active in their lives than He is or to make themselves appear to be special — one to whom God appears in marvelous ways. It gives them status and it makes people like God so… what’s the harm?

The harm is that it is still untrue, God doesn’t need the “help”, and it makes outsiders laugh at Christians. It also makes good hearted, sincere Christians question their worth to the Father or their place in the kingdom because God doesn’t sling phantom hitchhikers at them from time to time.

Now… if you are asking me if things like this are possible, the answer is absolutely YES. I once wrote — quite some time ago — about an incident in which my children and I saw and heard things that had no rational explanation. I have told that story once in print and twice from the pulpit. I don’t share it often. Why? Because I know that isn’t the way God usually works. He worked in that time and place in such a way as to help my children and me escape a wreck and get to medical treatment. He has no obligation to ever do that for us again. My faith in Him and my story of Him is not based on special, miraculous favors but on His wisdom, grace, power, and Son.

It is WAY to easy to get into a one-up battle with people when it comes to healing stories, stories of miracles, numbers of baptisms, success of missions, etc. I repeat — God doesn’t need the help and it makes outsiders laugh at us. I was in a discussion once where a pastor insisted that he defeated a demon and cast him out of a parishioner while the doctor (who actually treated the person) said that medicine brought the man around to his senses. Minirith and Meier (Christian psychiatrists who run a well known clinic) are famous for saying that demons seem to be allergic to Thorazine; their way of saying that many things pastors say are caused by demons are really caused by biology and can be treated by pharmacology).

I believe in demons, angels, healings, and miracles. I also believe that the curtain between our reality and Reality in the spiritual realm usually stays closed. Consider this as an example: I don’t think Daniel saw God every day even though he prayed to Him three times a day for over 70 years. We have records indicating that God showed up in Daniel’s life — pulled that curtain aside — a handful of times. Stephen, the great martyr, saw the curtain pulled back at the point of his death. Forgive me, but I am suspicious when I hear people speak as if God not only twitches the curtain far more often in their lives than He ever did for Daniel or Paul or Stephen, but has pulled it down and snuggled next to them on the couch.

Maybe. But maybe not.